Hey, all! I will be plying my wares tomorrow at Short Run. Prints and comics, and I’ll be selling my complete works, which I haven’t done in person before.

Now, as for me, I’d better get to stapling.

Short Run!

I have pictures to show you, but I have scanning to do, so you’re not seeing them now. Instead, I’m here to tell you to get yourself out of your house tomorrow and come down to the Punk Rock Flea Market. It costs one slim dollar to get in (which benefits low-income housing – come on, guys, just come), and you’ll see all manner of marvelous things. Including me, selling comics and offering unlicensed psychiatric advice, Lucy Van Pelt-style.

Seattlelites, it’ll be like 75 degrees out. You don’t want to be in your house. Come to the market instead and feel like you did something worthwhile with your day.

Thoughts:

1. The Olympia Comics Fest is one of my favorites. It’s small, but packed with great people as it draws from both Seattle and Portland – and Olympia itself, too. Chelsea Baker does a great, careful job of running this, and it always runs smoothly and enthusiastically. Seriously – everyone’s always so happy. The whole thing was put together and taken apart in just a half-hour, as the space was to be used for a couple other things that day. I’ve come to prefer comics fests that don’t charge admission – you get a better, wider crowd when you don’t charge $25 to come inside and buy things.*

2. I was too tired to stay around for anything afterward, so I basically vanished at 6:20. Yeah, well.

3. I sold some comics. It was good. I did an interview with a woman named Alison, and I found that, when asked what my advice would be for women who want to start doing comics, I would say the same thing to anyone of any gender interested in comics. Just do things, make things, draw constantly.** She’s going to compile her interviews into a zine. I’m looking forward to buying a copy.

4. This blog has an interesting roundup of the fest. I’m mentioned (well, pictured) here and here.

5. I need to make new business cards and handouts. Yes, yes I do.

6. I’m still tired. Just the state of things these days. I feel like I’m getting closer to starting my Next Thing, since I just have one issue left to complete for Furlough and since my brain is going to art and story things again for the first time in a while. I still don’t know what it’ll be. Maybe a big, found-fabric art sculpture that just functions as a cocoon for me to crawl into and hide. All hand-painted and hand-stitched. I think it’d be kind of nice. Hermit Nest, Breanne Boland, 2011. Roughly 400 square feet, made of mixed media and studio apartment.

*I get why those charges exist for some fests, but I still wish it wasn’t necessary.
**Ever have one of those weird moments where you realize you speak the truth, but know you’d benefit from taking your own advice? Yeah.

Why hello! How nice to see you again!

I’ve been busy with work, helping a friend redesign her website, and reminding myself that I do indeed like drawing, following the gulag-like six weeks that preceded completing Furlough 3. It’s a full schedule these days.

I just rejiggered my Etsy store, adding Furlough 3 to my complete works and replenishing inventory. (The real-world parallel of this was putting most of my comics inventory on my bed a few minutes ago. This process had to be curtailed, due to proverbial curious cat.)

I’m going to be at the Olympia Comics Festival this Saturday the 21st at table 22. You should come by and say hello. Even if you don’t, you should just show up anyway – Olympia’s fest is small but impeccably run and full of the nicest, most interesting people. It was one of my favorite fests last year, and I’m excited about this one too.

On June 4th, I’ll be at the Punk Rock Flea Market here in Seattle. I’ll have comics, but I may be doing something interesting with the table I’ll be sharing with my friend Jenny. We shall see. But there’ll definitely be funnybooks to be had, as well as a ton of other stuff.

And… yeah, that’s life right now. I’m gearing up to my next big creative project, although I haven’t narrowed down which idea I’m going to pursue next. One of my cats has pinkeye. I’m eating a lot of vegetables these days and doing some awesome cooking. I’m going to be in a wedding in a couple of weeks, which I think means I’ve officially entered my late 20s. I’m reading A Wrinkle in Time for the first time and wishing I’d had that story in my life as a kid. I’m delighting in the enchantingly abundant flowers that mean spring has arrived in Seattle. It’s good times. I hope you’re having some too.

And took it to ECCC, where it got into the hands of the people. Some of whom have read one and two and were specifically excited to see it, which was thrilling, I tell you.

Lookit:

It is shiny and lovely and a real, solid object. During the hardest parts of getting through making this issue, this was what I visualized: having the book in my hands, complete and beautiful. It’s a lovely thing to get to the horizon you’ve imagined.

Today was loads of fun. I’ll wander through the show tomorrow or Sunday, but today I talked to people and sold some Furloughs and got recognized from past conventions and generally had a very nice time. Afterward, I went to the Drink n’ Draw organized by the Bureau of Drawers, and we had a really great, varied crowd. Some of my favorite local cartoonist friends (I am too tired to link, sorry guys), and some from out of town who I was very happy to see. My friends and family are far-flung, here and there all across the U.S., so when any group I’m a part of gets something like together in one place, it makes me pretty happy. There was booze, there was drawing, and I got home later than I meant to but didn’t mind too much at all.

Friday was good. Now I need to complete the freebie Furlough promo thing I meant to do earlier and get myself to bed. And console the cats, who are very confused, as this was the longest I’ve been out of the house at one time since, oh, mid-January.

Confidential to the woman who bought the creativity zine from me last year and has since finished writing a BOOK (!!!): your compliment so overwhelmed me that I got a little flummoxed and lost my manners, so I didn’t ask your name. But what you said to me absolutely made my day, and it’ll make me happy to think about for a long time. Thank you.

I have in front of me a stack of collated, but not folded or stapled, copies of Sausage Stew, How to Be More Creative, and The Accidental Cat Lady.

This last one, I think I’m going to let go out of print after this run is gone, so grab it while you can.

ECCC, here I come!

It’s January, and I’m coming out of hibernation. I’d kind of like to stay in it for a while longer, but I can’t.

I’ll have a table at the Emerald City Comicon again this year at table M-27.

I’m lurching out of inactivity to get good and properly ready to work on Furlough 3. Just two more issues and it’s a complete story. I can’t wait.

I think I might’ve figured out what I’m doing next – or at least what the next comic story I’ll be working on developing will be. (After so much real life in Furlough, I feel like I need to do some fantasy shit, or something with dramatic amoebas or something. Just no more drawing cubicles, please.) I’m also going to be in not one but two Valentine’s Day shows – details to come in the next few days, with previews, as I’ll be getting to work on my art well in advance. Do you hear me, Breanne Boland? Well in advance!

Here’s the earliest drawing from what the next project might be. This is also an enigmatic explanation as to why I’ve been awfully quiet over the winter. And yes, the drawing is me.

I’m currently at Seatac, awaiting my flight to San Francisco, where I will be partaking in the awesomeness that is APE. I’ll be at table 531A. I went last year as a spectator, and it was… awesomely overwhelming.

I like to ask people how they’re doing when they walk up to my table at these shows, and that’s usually the answer I get – big wide eyes with, “There’s so much!” I don’t feel that so much at regular comics shows, as I’m not very invested in more mainstream comics. However, APE… APE, I walk around, and I get a little nutty because, well, yes, there’s so much, and so much of it is great. So much of it you can’t get anywhere else, or not easily, and that is how I ended up carting 12 pounds of comics home last year. Much of which I still haven’t gotten through – it’s a winter project of mine, one I’m very much looking forward to.

I am planning on being an uncharacteristically social butterfly (as opposed to the usual sleepy, housebound butterfly I am these days), so do keep an eye out for me, as I intend to be everywhere as much as I can.

The Halloween art show my illustration group has up is still going on at Cafe Racer in the University District in Seattle. I say this in a completely unbiased way (seriously!): it’s really impressive, and people made some beautiful and intricate pieces. Go see it, and have a strong drink while you’re there. We’re having a closing party on October 29th, and I don’t exaggerate when I say we’re a group of exceptionally good-looking and charming people. Here’s one of my pieces, titled Modusa.

Ink and watercolor and sass.

The zines are rounded up, the dolly is loaded, and I’m leaving tonight for Portland. I’ll have a table both days at the Portland Zine Symposium. I’ve never been before, but I get a general sense of radness from it. You should come say hello. I’ll be the one with the orange tablecloth.

I’M GOING TO HAVE A TABLE AT APE THIS FALL!

Look for me in San Francisco, October 16-17. More details to follow.

APE!!!